Part 60 (1/2)
”The Austrian general, as I foresaw, surprised by our march which has taken from him the offensive, has changed his plan of battle by making his infantry fall back half way upon the plateau of Geisberg. We must haste to profit by the hesitation into which this discreet retreat will have thrown the enemy.” Then, addressing one of the artillery officers, Hoche added: ”Citizen, order General Ferino to push out with the cavalry and flying artillery of his division. His cannoniers are to open fire upon the enemy's squadrons, and when they weaken, he is to send in his cavalry.”
The officer left at a gallop to convey the order to Ferino, who commanded the advance guard. The republican army was drawn up in three columns, the cavalry on the right, the infantry in the center, and the artillery on the left, with the reserves, the supplies and the ambulances in second line. Suddenly a distant booming, deep and prolonged, resounded on the left, in the direction of Nothweiller, and Hoche exclaimed:
”The cannon! The cannon! Gonvion St. Cyr has followed my orders! He is pouring out of the valley of the Lauter and attacking Brunswick's position. There are the Prussians engaged. They will hardly bring aid to the Austrians now! If Desaix has carried out his movement as well, and attacked Conde's body at Lauterburg, the Austrian army is thrown on its own resources. The Lines of Weissenburg are ours, and we shall raise the siege of Landau!”
At that moment General Ferino, in response to Hoche's orders, advanced at a rapid trot at the head of his cavalry and artillery. Beside the General rode Lebas, the Representative of the people on mission to the armies. Recognizing the importance of this first charge for the success of the day, he desired to a.s.sist Hoche, and to march in the front rank.
”On, my brave Ferino,” called Hoche to the General as he swept by.
”First shatter the Austrian cavalry with your cannon, and then--a taste of your saber for them!”
”Count on me, General. I'll send the white-cloaks to drink in the Lauter, whether they are thirsty or not,” replied Ferino; and waving his sword he turned towards his cohorts and gave the cry:
”Forward, my children, forward! Long live the Republic!”
”Long live the Republic!” shouted back the cavalrymen, flas.h.i.+ng their swords in the air as they thundered past Hoche. ”Our comrades have retaken Toulon--we shall free Landau!”
”Soldiers,” called Hoche, ”show yourselves worthy of your past victories. The Republic counts on the Army of the Rhine and Moselle! To victory or death!”
The battle was on. General Ferino's artillery mowed down the Austrian cavalry, Wurmser's first line. Profiting by their disorder, gathering up his squadrons and hurling them with himself at their head upon the enemy, Ferino overthrew the forces which opposed him, and carried his mounted sabers right into the infantry squares of the second line. Then Hoche flung his attacking column upon Wurmser's center, while that general's left wing fell under the fire of several batteries of flying artillery. One of these batteries, consisting of six four-pounders, had taken position on an eminence where lay a solitary farmhouse. From this hillock it was possible to rake the Austrian's left flank from the rear.
A squadron of the Third Hussars and two companies of the Seventh Battalion, Paris Volunteers, were detached to act as guard to this artillery. The captain of the battery, on reconnoitering his position, found that the farmhouse and its buildings occupied nearly the center of a mound about three hundred paces in diameter. Toward the enemy the hill presented a rapid rise of some thirty feet, while on the side of the republican army it was nearly level with the plain occupied by the reserves. A thicket of trees and live brush extended to the right and a little to the rear of the battery's position. The inhabitants of the place had fled with the opening of the engagement, carrying with them their cattle and all their more valuable belongings. One by one the iron spit-fires arrived to take their position in the battery, the first to appear being Carmagnole, the sweetheart of quartermaster d.u.c.h.emin. This piece, by the almost grotesque cut of its furniture, presented a curious example of the oddity of artillery carriages in those days.
The team drew up with a half-turn, d.u.c.h.emin and his eight a.s.sistants leaped to the ground, and confided their horses to the two artillerymen charged with their care. The pin which coupled the piece proper to the caisson was removed, and there she stood in position on her two wheels, some distance ahead of the caisson, in which the cartridges were kept.
The drivers hurried their horses under shelter of the farmhouse, some fifty paces away. Soon the six spit-fires were in position. The commanders of the squadron of hussars and the two companies of volunteers also took what advantage they could of the lay of the land to protect their men from the fire which an Austrian battery might at any moment be expected to open upon the republican guns. One of the Paris Volunteers' companies was masked in the brush of the little wood just mentioned, in position to fire from under cover in case the enemy should attempt to seize the battery. The other company entrenched itself behind the stone wall which enclosed the courtyard of the farm, and behind the buildings which already acted as cover to the artillery horses.
By the chances of war there were thus reunited among the defenders of the battery Oliver and Victoria, John Lebrenn and Castillon, and finally the young Parisian recruit Duresnel, who also was a member of Captain Martin's company.
”Well, comrade,” said Captain Martin to him, ”how goes it? Your heart is still whole? Keep up your courage, all will go well.”
”So far, captain, things are not going badly. But we must wait for the end--or rather for the beginning, for we haven't begun to fight yet.”
”It seems it is going to be warm!” volunteered Castillon. ”By my pipe, what a cannonade! That must be comrade d.u.c.h.emin making his Carmagnole spit! Let me see if I can get a glimpse of him over the wall.”
Stretching himself on tiptoe, Castillon raised himself sufficiently to cast his eye above the wall, upon the group of cannon, now half enveloped in the smoke of their first volleys. d.u.c.h.emin, kneeling on the ground after conning the hostile battery through his pocket-gla.s.s, was training his piece, already roughly aimed by a brigadier, while his a.s.sistants on either side, armed with their ramrods, sponges and levers, stood ready for action. One of them held the match, waiting for the order to light the fuse. The other five pieces, ranged parallel to Carmagnole, were likewise surrounded by their attendants and being sighted by their under-officers. The captain of artillery and his lieutenants, on horseback, superintended the manoeuvring. In the distance the Austrian lines and the advancing columns of the French were lost almost completely in the smoke and smother of the now general cannonade. Nevertheless, the watchers on the hill soon perceived a large ma.s.s of opposing infantry so cut up and thrown into disorder by the relentless and accurate fire of the battery, that the Austrian general was moving up four howitzers and four six-pounders, with the intention of crippling the republican artillery. Seeing with his gla.s.s the first howitzer advance to the left from the enemy's battery, d.u.c.h.emin at once carefully re-trained his Carmagnole, shook his fist in the howitzer's direction, and growled under his heavy moustache, alluding to the short and stocky build of those pieces:
”Ah, it is you who would presume to silence my Carmagnole, stump-nose!
I'll show you that you were never cast to clip my sweetheart's words!”
Just then, in response to a sign from the captain, the trumpeter of the battery sounded the signal to ”Fire!”
”Come, my cadet,” cried d.u.c.h.emin to the soldier with the burning match, ”the soup is ready--all we need is to serve it! Light her! light her!
Let her go!”
The cannonier touched off the fuse with his match, and Carmagnole's discharge rang out several seconds ahead of the general volley of the battery. Gazing again through his field-gla.s.s to watch the effect of his sh.e.l.l, d.u.c.h.emin cried out: ”There she is! The stump-nose is knocked off one wheel, and two of her flunkies are keeled over. Long live the Republic!”
In fact, Carmagnole's ball had crushed one of the wheels of the howitzer and knocked down two of the Austrian artillerists an instant before the hostile battery had gotten in its first shot. But almost immediately the enemy's guns were crowned with several little clouds of white smoke, lighted up with streaks of flame. A prolonged roar reached the Frenchmen, and d.u.c.h.emin exclaimed, turning towards the stone wall where the volunteer infantrymen were entrenched:
”Citizens, look out for the sh.e.l.ls!”
Hardly had d.u.c.h.emin sounded the warning when the rain of iron was upon them; the b.a.l.l.s screamed, the sh.e.l.ls rebounded and burst. The commander of the little republican battery was cut in two by a flying sh.e.l.l; horse and rider went down mangled before the shot. Another sh.e.l.l burst between two cannon, killing one of their crew and wounding two others so severely that they fell and with difficulty dragged themselves to the ambulance sheltered behind the farmhouse.
”Cannoniers! Load at will! Aim for the howitzers!” cried the first lieutenant, a.s.suming command. The trumpet repeated the order through its metal throat. The artillerymen vied with one another in haste to charge their pieces. Then cries of ”Fire! Fire!” rang out from the farmhouse, which suddenly became enveloped in thick black smoke. A sh.e.l.l exploding in a hay loft had set the blaze.